Secret Dream: Delos Series, 1B1 (3 page)

“Mom! Dad!” Lia cried out. She dragged Cav over to them. “This is Cav Jordan. Cav? My dad, Steve Cassidy. My mom, Susan.”

She released Cav’s right hand. He awkwardly extended it toward Susan. “Mrs. Cassidy, it’s nice to meet you.” He felt her stare icily at him, as if he were some alien who had just come from outer space. Reluctantly, she proffered her hand, barely shaking his.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Jordan.”

He felt that limp handshake of hers and tried to make the best of it, but the vibe from her wasn’t good.
Great.

“Call him Cav, Mom,” Lia pleaded, launching herself at her mother, throwing her arms around her.

Cav stood back, watching mother and daughter embrace one another. All of that ice melted instantly as Susan grabbed her shorter daughter and held her strongly in her arms. The love was clearly written in her face. Cav swallowed hard. For a moment, he pictured his mother, who, when he was a young child, had hauled him into her arms and held him just as tightly as Susan was holding her daughter.

“Son?”

Cav turned his head toward the man who had spoken.

“Steve Cassidy. Welcome, Mr. Jordan. We owe you a lot.” He gripped Cav’s hand and choked out, “You saved Lia’s life. Thank you . . .”

For a moment, Cav was stunned by the sudden kindness emanating from the farmer’s expression. He was thin, wiry, sunburned, and sinewy from the daily work he did. Gripping the farmer’s callused hand, he said, “Nice to meet you, sir. And I was just doing my job. Call me Cav.”

“Call me Steve.” He clapped him heartily on the back, still clasping his other hand. “And you’re a hero to us, son. Nothing less.” Steve released him but kept his hand on Cav’s broad shoulder, watching Lia clinging to her mother, both of them in a tight, loving embrace.

Embarrassed by such a show of emotion, Cav murmured, “Thank you, sir.”

Steve gave him an assessing look. “Just Steve will do.”

“Yes, sir—I mean, okay,” Cav said, stumbling over his words. He wasn’t very comfortable meeting new people, but these were Lia’s parents, and he didn’t want to fuck this up for her. Awkwardly, he stood there, watching tears roll down Susan’s face. He wasn’t sure that Lia wasn’t crying, too, such was the tight bond they shared. Obliquely, his mind leaped backward. Cav remembered the times his mother had cried. But they were tears of pain. Tears mingled with blood from her nose, a split lip, or both after his father got done beating her up. How many times had Cav cried alone in his room wishing she would run away with him from his monster father?

Steve clapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s us guys go find your luggage, huh?” He smiled a little and gestured for Cav to follow him toward the carousels.

Good idea!
“Yes, sir—”

Steve laughed and patted him warmly on the back. “You’re staying a week with us, Cav. I’ll work that military formality out of you by then. Come on, let’s hunt up that luggage for you and our Lia, eh?”

Steve had a male gruffness mingled with warmth that made Cav want to open up to the man. There was benevolence in his deeply weathered face and kind blue eyes, and Cav automatically found himself wanting to be close to this easygoing farmer who exuded a gentleness he rarely found in any man. “Thanks for coming to pick us up,” Cav said, noting that the baggage from their flight would be spit out by carousel two.

“We’ve been looking forward to seeing you kids,” Steve said, standing with his hands on his hips, watching the luggage starting to be dropped off the conveyor belt. “Did you have a good flight?”

“Yes. It was quiet. That’s all I ask.”

“We don’t travel much,” he said. “With a big farm like this, you can’t walk away from it, so I’m glad you came for a visit.”

Cav felt Steve’s genuine sincerity. He looked over his shoulder, seeing Lia and her mother talking animatedly with one another as they walked toward them. Susan had given Lia her beauty, no question. He liked that she had hooked her arm around Lia’s waist and that they walked closely, their affection open. He could see how happy she was to be home with her parents once more. They breathed even more life into her, if that was possible. Compared to the ghost of a person she had been months earlier in Costa Rica, Lia’s natural radiance stunned Cav. She was sunshine to his darkened soul, which craved her.

“Uh-oh,” Steve murmured, grinning, as he turned. “I’m about to get attacked.”

For a moment, the word put Cav on instant guard. But as he turned, he saw Steve opening his arms as Lia flew into them, her joy shining from her face as she clung to her father. A lump formed in his throat as he watched Lia being swallowed up by the big man, who kissed her hair, kissed the cheek that had that deep scar on it, his eyes only for his beaming daughter in his embrace. His gaze flicked to Susan, who stood a few feet away, teary-eyed, smiling, her lower lip trembling as she watched Lia with her doting father. It hurt to swallow and Cav turned away, remembering too much of the twisted and distorted family he’d somehow managed to survive. He’d never known a moment of affection from his father. Only his fist. His hatred. His anger, always aimed at Cav.

Lia had been right. She’d told him that she came from a solid, loving family. There were times she had cried for Cav when he’d shared some event that took place in his childhood. Now he could see why it touched her so deeply. Lia knew only love, kindness, and respect from her adoring parents. And to see that love shining in their eyes for her rocked him deeply. No wonder Lia had the internal strength she possessed. Cav really hadn’t known a positive role model until his sea daddy, SEAL Chief Jacoby, had taken him on as a rebellious eighteen-year-old who was angry at the world. Jacoby had broken through Cav’s distrust of males in general as well. That had taken years, but finally, Cav had given the Navy chief his honesty and his trust. Jacoby never took advantage of it like his father had. Steve Cassidy seemed to be a warmer version of Jacoby, without the tough military exterior. The man blotted Lia’s tears away with an old white linen handkerchief he had in his pocket, then smiled often and easily as Lia chatted with him, keeping her solidly in his embrace. All Cav could think of and see at that moment was his own father lunging for him, fist snaking out, slamming him in the side of the face, sending him flying off his feet.

He felt eyes upon him and glanced up, seeing Susan Cassidy staring hard at him. It would do no good to get defensive about her demeanor. Cav would do anything to make this week for Lia one of utter happiness. He’d swallow the bitter brew of Susan’s wary look at him, her arms crossed defensively against her chest as she stared boldly at him. What did she want? What did she see in him that made her look at him like that? Cav had no idea. He caught sight of their two huge bags and walked over to the carousel to retrieve them, glad to be out from beneath her acid, distrustful inspection.

Steve showed up just as he hauled the second bag off the carousel. He took it from Cav’s hand and said, “Come on, time to go home, son.”

Home.

His heart twisted over the word.
Home
for him meant pain, fear, and an intense struggle to survive at times. As he set the pink bag, which was Lia’s, on its rollers, he felt her come alongside him, sliding her arm around his waist as he straightened. It was impossible not to smile as she looked longingly up at him, her lips soft and eyes glistening with unfallen tears but radiant. His heart wrenched with such fierce love for her.

“Hi, stranger,” she teased, turning and walking with him.

Cav automatically placed his arm around her shoulders, tucking her in beside him as they walked, following Lia’s parents out of the terminal. “Hi yourself. Happy?”

Lia leaned up on her tiptoes, impulsively placing a kiss on his jaw. “I’m the happiest person in the world right now, Cav.”

“Good. I always want it to be that way for you,” he told her, a catch in his voice. He guided her outside and noticed Susan give him a dark look when she saw his arm around Lia. Then she turned, marching off to catch up with her long-striding husband.

“Mom doesn’t know what to think about you yet,” Lia admitted quietly.

“What did you tell her?” Cav looked both ways before crossing the busy street for the parking lot across the way.

“That I love you and you love me.” She frowned. “She doesn’t know you yet, Cav. Give her time.”

“Your father seems to be okay with me being around.”

“My mom is protective because of Jerry and Manuel,” she said apologetically, giving him a worried look.

“Oh, those two bastards.”

Laughing a little, Lia said, “Yes, the ones that went screaming away from me when they saw the rest of my scars.”

“She thinks I’m another Jerry?”

“I don’t know,” Lia hedged. “She didn’t bring him up, but she’s worried for me. I told her not to be. That I’m so happy with you.”

“Am I the first guy you’ve ever brought home to meet them?” he asked, giving her a teasing look.

“Actually, you are. When I was in the Army I didn’t want to get married, and they knew that. I told them I’d start looking for a husband after I got out.”

“Did your mom want you married sooner, not later?”

“Yes. She’s been waiting on grandchildren for a long time.”

“But that attack on you five years ago probably shook up their world a lot?” He saw the darkness come to Lia’s gray eyes. “Forget the questions,” he grunted, not wanting to ruin her present happy state. “Sometimes my SEAL need to know gets the better of me.”

Pensive, Lia nodded. “It’s okay, Cav. I feel you’re right about Mom. Until she gets to know you better, she’ll probably worry you’re another Jerry in my life.”

“Okay,” he said soothingly, squeezing her gently, “I’ll deal with it. What I want is for you to be happy while we’re here.”

“
You
make me happy, Cav. I love my parents, too, but I’m in love with you.”

It made him feel less threatened. “And I love you, baby. I always will.”

“Mom will relax,” Lia said. “She’s not a mean person, Cav. She’s a very loving person.”

“Just like you. You two look a lot alike.”

She smiled a little, leaning her head against his shoulder for a moment. “We are a lot alike, but I got my dad’s common sense. He’s the one who taught me mechanics.”

“I like him a lot,” Cav admitted, watching the couple in front of them stop at a white SUV.

“I call Dad my teddy bear,” Lia said, smiling fondly. “Mom was always the strict one. He always let me do wild, wonderful things when Mom wasn’t looking.”

“Like what?”

“Like buying Goldy, the palomino mustang gelding that I wanted to rescue from the dog-food factory in Ontario. He did buy him, because I was so horse-crazy.”

“So,” Cav said, “your dad spoils you? Your mom gets the job of being the house meanie?” He watched his teasing draw a huge smile out of her.

“No way, Jordan! Believe me, my dad was equally good at making me responsible and do the right thing for the right reasons, too. There’s no good cop/bad cop in our family.”

They just didn’t lay a hand on you to get you to do it, is all.
Cav kept those words to himself. Because that’s how he got taught: with a fist, a belt, and threats that were usually carried out. He’d learned real fast.

“Well, it’s going to be interesting for me,” he confided.

“Oh, you’re gonna use your SEAL abilities?” she crowed.

“Yep.”

Lia rubbed her hands together, giving him a wicked grin. “We’ll compare notes when we’re alone, okay?”

Cav had his doubts about that, too. Lia had only told Susan that she was in love with him. “Did you tell your mother that we’re living together?”

“No,” she hedged.

“Then,” Cav said lightly, “from what I’ve surmised of your mother so far, she’s not going to let us sleep together under their roof. That’s my assessment.”

Lia’s fine, thin brows knitted as she considered Cav’s statement. “Oh . . . I hadn’t thought of that.” Her mouth canted and she muttered, “I’ll bet you’re right.”

“Not happy about that?”

“No, but it’s their house, Cav. We’ll respect whatever they want.”

He gave her a mischievous look. “Do you have a barn?”

“Yes. Why?” And then her eyes widened. “Oh, Cav! You wouldn’t! I mean . . . what if we got caught?”

Shrugging, he said blandly, “I’m a SEAL, remember? If I don’t want to be found or seen, I’m not.”

Her lips curved and she gave him a thoughtful look. “This is going to get interesting. I’ve never made love in a barn.”

“No?”

“No.”

He leaned over, kissing her hair. “There’s a first time for everything, baby.”

C
av liked the
old two-story farmhouse as they drove up to the U-shaped gravel driveway. It sat out in the middle of what he assumed were sugar beet fields, their large leaves waving like green fans in the breeze. He saw a tractor with a wagon on the back, spitting out what looked like red beets, only their tops were cut off. There were a lot of men working about a mile away in one of the three massive fields surrounding the family homestead.

“Those are the fields,” Lia said, pointing toward the tractor and men laboring around it.

“It’s harvest time,” Steve told Cav as he put the SUV in park in front of the house. “Come on in. Let’s get you two young ones settled in.”

Cav opened the door and held out his hand to Lia, who took it. He could feel Susan’s eyes on him, like two holes burning into his back. It hurt him that she didn’t trust him. Maybe he could find out why sooner rather than later, because he knew there would be blowback on Lia. And that’s what he didn’t want. As he closed the door, he released Lia’s hand and walked to the rear of the SUV, where Steve was hauling out their suitcases. Cav took both of them in hand.

Susan was mounting the wide white wooden steps. She pulled the screen door open and as Cav came up the steps, she said, “Your bedroom is on the left. You can put Lia’s luggage in her room, which is across the hall from yours.”

Cav made sure he hid his smile from the frowning woman. She sounded like a general who wasn’t going to take shit from a lower-ranked officer. “Yes, ma’am,” he murmured. He walked down the cool hallway lined with dark mahogany paneling, a very old Persian-rug runner extending down the length of it. The wood was hand hewn and Cav appreciated the craftsmanship that had gone into it.